North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Kieran <holycow@frontiernet.net>]

Barry,
     You have left out something rather dear to my heart.  Wild black 
cherry, Prunus serotina, makes terrific wine.  It crops poorly here on 
the impoverished red and yellow clays of the HIghland Rim, and I miss it 
very much.  The trees are here, but even on better soil I think selected 
specimans could make them a commercial crop. I'd like to see wild black 
cherries selected for precocity, dwarfing or dwarfing rootstocks, larger 
fruit, and especially fruit with less bitterness.  For wine it doesn't 
matter, it has to have a certain bitterness to it.  But I think that a 
little less bitterness might make something that could be eaten with 
less dilution and less sugar.
    I have not seen a lot of variation in the local native hazels. 
Those few that may have been selected were probably selected up north.  
I'd think southerners also did selection, but maybe being less affluent 
and literate, their selections were less likely to be written up and 
spread around.  For a number of native nut species there have been 
contests, sponsored by groups or more often by state and county fairs.  
These contests turned up some very good selections.  Maybe there should 
be more of those contests.

 Donna